Eckhart Tolle quotes page 1

Ulrich Leonard Tolle, more commonly known as Eckhart Tolle, was born in Lunen,
Germany, in 1948. Tolle did not lead a happy life, and his childhood was one of the worst periods. His parents
fought consistently, he did not have friends at school, and his world felt like an angry and hostile place. When
his parents finally separated, Tolle elected to move to Spain in order to live with his father. As the years went
on, Tolle only grew more and more depressed – he admits that these years were when he considered suicide, and had
come to the end of his rope. When he was 29, however, Tolle experienced a transformation that he attributes to an
epiphany about the self. When he came to a realization that he was not a singular person, but rather part of a
larger entity, he felt at peace and his depression dissipated. Once he spent a few years reveling in his new-found
bliss, Tolle began counseling and teaching in a spiritual manner. Tolle has never associated himself with any
religion, but rather works off of the idea of humans as primarily spiritual entities. Tolle is known as the author
or two highly influential books, A New Earth and The Power of Now. He has traveled the world,
spreading his message of peace and happiness. To this day, Tolle spreads his teachings and continuing tutoring,
mentoring, and speaking to the masses. He recently unveiled a website that hosts Eckhart Tolle TV, which he uses to
further spread his message.

The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very
destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly -
you usually don't use it at all. It uses you. This is the disease. You believe that you are
your
mind. This is the delusion. The instrument has taken you over.Eckhart Tolle

Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we don't realize this because
almost everybody is suffering from it, so it is considered normal.Eckhart Tolle

See if you can catch yourself complaining in either speech or thought, about a situation you
find yourself in, what other people do or say, your surroundings, your life situation, even the
weather. To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an
unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the
situation or accept it. All else is madness.Eckhart Tolle

Whenever you notice that some form of negativity has arisen within you, look on it not as
failure, but as a helpful signal that is telling you: "Wake up. Get out of your mind. Be
present."Eckhart Tolle

People would occasionally come up to me and say: "I want what you have. Can you give it to
me, or show me how to get it?" And I would say: "You have it already. You just can't feel it
because your mind is making too much noise."Eckhart Tolle

Carl Jung tells in one of his books of a conversation he had with a Native
American chief who
pointed out to him that in his perception most white people have tense faces, staring eyes,
and a cruel demeanor. He said: "They are always seeking something. What are they seeking?
The whites always want something. They are always uneasy and restless. We don't know
what they want. We think they are mad."Eckhart Tolle

A great deal of what people say, think, or do is actually motivated by fear, which of course is
always linked with having your focus on the future and being out of touch with the Now. As
there are no problems in the Now, there is no fear either.Eckhart Tolle

You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe tounfold. That is how important
you are!Eckhart Tolle

A belief may be comforting. Only through your own experience, however, does it become
liberating.Eckhart Tolle

Your mind is an instrument, a tool. It is there to be used for a specific task, and when the
task is completed, you lay it down. As it is, I would say about 80 to 90 percent of most
people's thinking is not only repetitive and useless, but because of its dysfunctional and often
negative nature, much of it is also harmful. Observe your mind and you will find this to be true.
It causes a serious leakage of vital energy. This kind of compulsive thinking is actually an
addiction. What characterizes an addiction? Quite simply this: you no longer feel that you
have the choice to stop. It seems stronger than you. It also gives you a false sense of
pleasure, pleasure that invariably turns into pain.Eckhart Tolle

Enlightenment is not only the end of suffering and of continous conflict within and without,
but also the end of the dreadful enslavement to incessant thinking. What an incredible
liberation this is!Eckhart Tolle

Humans have been in the grip of pain for eons, ever since they fell from the state of grace,
entered the realm of time and mind, and lost awareness of Being. At that point, they started
to perceive themselves as meaningless fragments in an alien universe, unconnected to the
Source and to each other.Eckhart Tolle

The whole essence of Zen consists in walking along the razor's edge of Now - to be so
utterly, so completely present that no problem, no suffering, nothing that is not who you
arein your essence, can survive in you. In the Now, in the absence of time, all your problems
dissolve. Suffering needs time; it cannot survive in the Now.Eckhart Tolle

What a liberation to realize that the "voice in my head" is not who I am. Who am I then? The
one who sees that.Eckhart Tolle

Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace? Yes. Happiness depends on
conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not.Eckhart Tolle

You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are
at the deepest level.Eckhart Tolle

Accept - then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.
Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will
miraculously transform your whole life.Eckhart Tolle

Are you polluting the world or cleaning up the mess? You are responsible for your inner space;
nobody else is, just as you are responsible for the planet. As within, so without: If humans
clear inner pollution, then they will also cease to create outer pollution.Eckhart Tolle

The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved
mind runs your life.Eckhart Tolle

Anything that you resent and strongly react to in another is also in you.Eckhart Tolle

In the eyes of the ego, self-esteem and humility are contradictory. In truth, they are one
and the same.Eckhart Tolle

The reason why some people love to engage in dangerous activities, such as mountain
climbing, car racing, and so on, although they may not be aware of it, is that it forces them
into the Now - that intensely alive state that is free of time, free of problems, free of
thinking, free of the burden of the personality.Eckhart Tolle

You have probably come across "mad" people in the street incessantly talking or muttering to
themselves. Well, that's not much different from what you and all other "normal" people do,
except that you don't do it out loud.Eckhart Tolle

The realm of consciousness is much vaster than thought can grasp. When you no longer
believe everything you think, you step out of thought and see clearly that the thinker is not
who you are.Eckhart Tolle